In the first case, Luis Colon admitted that he was a supplier in a Colombian drug ring operating in Texas, according to court records. He admitted that he sold cocaine to Bladimir Riascos Arbodela and Luz Maria Burton, a pair of drug dealers whom the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office arrested in June 2010 with a half-kilogram of cocaine.

In the other case, Colon admitted to supplying cocaine and cocaine base to drug dealers in the Bogalusa, Louisiana area.

Law enforcement officers followed one of the Louisiana dealers in December 2010 to Texas, where they saw him meet with Colon, according to court records. After Colon saw Houston police officers, he threw thousands of dollars out the window of his car.

According to the plea agreements, Colon admitted that he was responsible for 15 to 20 kilograms of cocaine in the Louisiana case, and about 120 kilograms of cocaine in the Mobile case.

Defense attorney Fred Kleppner said the federal conspiracy statute allows prosecutors to hold a defendant responsible for all of the drugs sold by the drug ring, even if he did not personally sell them.

"They used to call that the government’s darling," he said. "It seems a bit unfair, but that is the law." 